Headers have begun firing up on properties across the Moree district over the past week, defying the odds stacked against growers during what was a particularly challenging season.
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Considering just a few months ago, the prospects of any harvest at all were looking bleak, Landmark Moree agronomist Garry Onus said it’s pleasing to see headers out in the field at this time of year.
“Most people I’ve spoken to that are harvesting are very happy and just thankful for what they’ve got because they know others have nothing,” he said.
“They just want to get it off before it rains now, they’re chewing at the bit to get it off.
“It’s also nice to see a little pile of grain out at GrainCorp.”
Mr Onus said there are “bits and pieces” of crops “here and there” which are being harvested, while many dry-sown crops won’t get off for another few weeks.
“Probably 70 to 80 per cent of those with crops have started but a lot of it will be late,” he said.
“A lot of crop didn’t come up until we got rain in August.”
Mr Onus said considering the year, yields are so far looking reasonable.
“They’re a bit all over the shop; they vary from paddock to paddock,” he said.
“The rain was totally variable; some people have had 100 mils and there are other people who have had 10.”
Despite this, Mr Onus said the recent rainfall has “made a hell of a difference” to the results of this year’s harvest, with barley faring best overall.
“It made a bit of a mattled mess in some places, with white crop amongst the green, but without rain, it would have been very ordinary,” he said.
“Early-planted chickpea on good moisture will come home well and some wheat will, but barley is coming home better of all of them as far as the late rain is concerned.”
The Jackson family are currently harvesting their deep-planted chickpeas, having already finished harvesting their linseed crops across their three properties, ‘Inverness’, ‘Bellaree’ and ‘Jymoomah’, located south-east of Moree.
The Jacksons’ linseed crops produced yields of 0.8t/ha, while chickpeas are averaging 1t/ha, which Peter Jackson said is pretty good for this year.
“I’m amazed at what’s been produced,” he said.
“It’s excellent for a poor year, however it would be very ordinary for a normal year.
“It’s more than we had a right to expect; we knew it was going to be tough.”
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Unfortunately the Jacksons’ deep-planted canola got frosted, so it was cut and baled for hay “to help those with animals”, while their dry-sown wheat has been “hit and miss”.
Mr Jackson said the recent rain has particularly helped the shallow, dry-sown wheat, however it has varied from property to property.
Their property ‘Bellaree’ received 18mm of rain and is expected to yield 2t/ha for wheat, while their ‘Jymoomah’ property only received 5mm, causing the wheat to germinate a lot later.
For the Jacksons, the decision to deep-sow – their AusWest Seeds production chickpea crop was sown 6.5 inches deep – certainly paid off.
“It was the difference between getting a crop or no crop,” Phil Jackson said.
“We’re very happy to have something to harvest. We had good moisture profile when we planted, so we thought we’d get something.
“The deep-sowing has allowed the chickpeas to grow up a bit,” Peter added.
“If they’d been dry-sown, particularly in the rocky areas, we wouldn’t have been able to harvest it.”
While the Jacksons are thankful to have a crop to harvest this year, their thoughts go out to others who haven’t been so lucky.
